Bench Seat
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A bench seat is a full width continuous pad forming the front seat of
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
s. The second row of seating in most sedans is usually a bench. The third row of most SUVs and minivans, which may be forward-facing or rear-facing, is also a bench seat.


Design

The front bench seat typically allowed three people to sit abreast, thus six passengers in most four-door sedans with this type of arrangement. For example, "although advertised as an economical '
compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a t ...
' car, the
952 Year 952 (Roman numerals, CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – At the Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I (Holy Roman ...
Willys Aero could comfortably sit three abreast on its front and rear bench seats, and deliver excellent fuel economy."
Nash Motors Nash Motors Company was an American automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin from 1916 until 1937. From 1937 through 1954, Nash Motors was the automotive division of Nash-Kelvinator. As sales of smaller firms declined after 1950 in ...
introduced what it called "airliner" reclining front bench seats that could transform into a bed.
American Motors American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the mergers and acquisitions, merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 19 ...
promoted its adjustable bench seats on the 1959
Ramblers The Ramblers' Association, branded simply as the Ramblers, is Great Britain's walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path network. T ...
and
Ambassadors An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
as featuring several putatively restful positions, including a "comfortable nap couch for children and older adults." In 1972, the Jeep Commando's center console for the automatic transmission was replaced with a steering column mounted shifter, allowing a bench seat option. The 1975 AMC Pacer introduced numerous designs that included the cab forward and room for three on the front bench seat. The
bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form, it contours somewhat to the human body, but may have a deep seat and exaggerated sides that partially ...
arrangement leaves a space between the two front seats, usually occupied by a shifter and hand brake. Originally, bucket seats were associated with imported cars in the 1950s and 1960s. The Volkswagen Bus was originally available with three rows of bench seats seating up to nine passengers, but since then most minivans have been configured to seat seven or eight with front bucket seats. In Australia, the Holden Kingswood, Ford Falcon and Chrysler Valiant were fitted with bench seats for many years. Up until its discontinuation, the Falcon Ute was still offered with a bench seat and column shift in the front, and availability of a front bench seat in the Falcon sedan and wagon lineups was only discontinued with the introduction of the FG Falcon in 2008. Holden offered a bench seat on the Commodore in the 1990s, originating with the VG Ute and ending with the end of VS series III production in 2000. Part of the success of the Chrysler K-cars, the Dodge Aries and the Plymouth Reliant, was that by retaining front bench seating rather than adopting bucket seats usually fitted to compacts, they could still function as the six passenger cars they were designed to replace and compete against. Because the shifter and parking brake cannot be mounted between the seats, the transmission selector or shifter is moved to the steering column, and the emergency brake is activated by a pedal in the driver's footwell. The traditional sedans with full-width bench seating offered nearly the same passenger capacity as the newer three-row SUV or minivan. Some models, such as the
Chrysler Pacifica Chrysler Pacifica is a nameplate used by Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacture ...
, feature a center console in the second row, rather than room for a passenger in the middle.


Decline

Even in the United States, the
bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form, it contours somewhat to the human body, but may have a deep seat and exaggerated sides that partially ...
has largely replaced the bench seat; the bucket is viewed as "sportier", and smaller cars have made the middle position less viable. For high performance cars, bucket seats help keep the driver in place during cornering. Some pickup and larger
truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...
s are still available with bench seats which would only be able to seat two if bucket seats were fitted, though some extended and crew cabs retain them to keep costs down since separate availability of bucket seats (captain's chairs) adds to the parts cost. Until around the mid 1990s, bench seats still predominated in large American premium sedans and minivans, but even in this market they have become rare. The
Toyota Avalon The is a full-size car, full-size Sedan (automobile), sedan manufactured by Toyota, as its largest front-wheel drive sedan; also its flagship in the United States, Canada, China and the Middle East. The Avalon was also manufactured in Australi ...
is among some of the newest models to drop availability of this feature, and models such as the Buick LeSabre replaced by new models such as the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS in which it is offered as an option. They were standard equipment on the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Lincoln Town Car until they were discontinued in 2011. As of 2013, it was reported that only one American automobile, the
Chevrolet Impala The Chevrolet Impala () is a full-size car that was built by Chevrolet for model years 1958 to 1985, 1994 to 1996, and 2000 to 2020. The Impala was Chevrolet's popular flagship passenger car and was among the better-selling American-made auto ...
was sold with a bench seat, and the option was terminated in the next model year. The front bench seat also declined due to safety concerns as air bags could only protect two front seat passengers (an exception being the Cadillac Air Bank system, dating back to the early 1990s, in which the passenger side air bag is significantly larger than the driver side air bag is, so it can protect the middle passenger in a frontal crash).


See also

*
List of auto parts This is a list of auto parts, which are manufactured components of automobiles. This list reflects both fossil-fueled cars (using internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the c ...


References

{{Car-interior Auto parts